Firebreak Chapter 1
by Firebreaker
Summary: Waverly Carter, a freshman at Moorhead High School, is in love with Skyler Sorcer, a sophomore, and wins a first date with him...and a first kiss. But she has no idea that he's much more than just a regular high school boy...


Firebreak

Chapter 1: First Fantasy

It was staring me square in the face. It was the one thing I had been trying to avoid. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't get it to go away. It was like running from something that you know could easily take you down. It was my worst nightmare.

High school.

My alarm woke me at 6:00 Monday morning. I moaned as I reached, still half asleep, to my nightstand and pushed the Snooze button. I rolled over, away from my nightstand, and tried to go back to sleep, although I knew it was my first day of school. I heard a knock on my door which startled me and made me sit up.

"Yeah?" I said as I rubbed my eyes.

"No sleeping in. Your bus comes at 7," my mother's cheerful yet strict morning voice came from the other side of the black, wooden door.

"'Kay," I leaned over my nightstand to turn my alarm off so that it wouldn't go off again.

I quickly changed into a pair of skinny jeans and a red shirt with Fargo printed in black cursive letters that was impossible to read with a black tank top underneath. I went to my bathroom, which I had all to myself, thank goodness, and brushed through my medium-length blonde hair then brushed my teeth. I grabbed my makeup pouch from the top drawer just to the right of my sink. I took my time doing my makeup since I knew that I could afford to kill a few minutes. I put my makeup back in the top drawer when I had finished, then brushed through my hair again. I decided to put a few curls in it, hoping that my fine yet thick hair would hold it. I sprayed my curled hair with hairspray then returned to my room to make my bed. I cleaned my room, even though there was very little to clean.

I was always a rather tidy person, probably taking after my mom. I threw my dirty clothes that were lying by my bed into my hamper and grabbed the few Coca-Cola cans that were collecting on my desk, throwing them in my trash can. I heard my door open wildly just then. I spun around reflexively only to find my older brother Tailor halfway through the doorway.

"Really, Tailor? You don't know how to knock?" I had told him numerous times to knock before he entered my room, but he never did. Typical brother.

"Nope, not really," he said as he came into my room toward me, "So are you ready to go? You don't want to miss your first day." I shrugged and grabbed my books from the top of my desk and my 10-pound backpack from the back the chair. Tailor inspected my outfit carefully, seeming to approve until he looked at my feet. He looked back up at my face with a silly smile.

"Are you going to school without shoes or what?" he teased. I looked down at my shoeless feet, one in a red sock and the other in a purple sock.

"Crap."

"That might be a good thing to have. Just a suggestion." He shrugged as he said that. I gave him a dirty look then threw down my bag and books. I ran to my closet and grabbed my pair of black Converse and hurriedly laced them to my feet. I picked up my bag and books off the floor, making sure my outfit was now presentable.

"I'm ready."

"Tailor, Waverly. Bus is here," my mom called from the bottom of the staircase. Tailor ran out of my room into his, which was just down the hall from mine, and reappeared with his backpack and books. We closed our doors as we raced downstairs. We waved goodbye to our mom then raced out into the 35 degree September morning. It was always freezing in Minnesota in the morning. Today was supposed to be only 57 degrees, but I didn't bring a jacket since I was used to the extreme cold. Tailor beat me to the bus, not that there was any competition anyway. We were the very first stop, also the very last, and we both went straight to the back, sitting on either side. I started getting nervous when I didn't see anyone that I knew as we went through the stops. I was afraid that I wouldn't get to see any of my friends on the bus. After what seemed like the 20th stop, I finally spotted Skyler Sorcer, a friend of my brother's.

"Hey, Tailor," he said as he approached us, "Hey, Waverly."

"Hey, Skyler." I was relieved that he was here. He gave me a small smile as he went to sit with Tailor, across the aisle from me. I didn't have to be partner less for long, since my best friend, Mariah Vincen, appeared on the bus. I hadn't seen her at all this past summer.

"Waverly!" She yelled my name across the bus to me.

"Hey, Mariah" I stood up to greet her as she nearly ran to me. She threw herself into my arms and gave me a huge hug. She finally released me and we sat down. The whole way to school, the conversation was nothing but stories and questions about summer. I thought she had a much more exciting summer than I did. She had an incredible trip to Disneyland and Las Vegas. I stayed in this hot, humid place. Very boring. It seemed to only take five minutes to reach Moorhead High School. The school was already swarming with people when we arrived. The bus came to a stop and we all managed to get off the bus in no time at all.

"Are you girls hungry? We're headed for the cafeteria now for breakfast," Tailor offered. I looked at Mariah and shrugged.

"No, I'm good. I'd rather just tour the school first." I looked back at Mariah, who had an approving smile.

"Okay. We'll catch up with you later. See ya," Tailor waved and turned to walk toward the cafeteria with Skyler. I stared after Skyler for a minute without him knowing. Mariah gave me a friendly little punch on the shoulder, which forced my attention to focus on her.

"You like him, don't you?" she teased. I sighed and looked back toward Skyler, who then disappeared out of sight.

"I love him." I could see out of the corner of my eye that she smiled. "But he's way too good for me. I'd never have a chance with him."

"Don't say that. You don't know that, anyway. Maybe he likes you back. You never know." She put her hand on my shoulder as she said this. I shook my head.

"I don't think so. Come on, let's walk around and see if we can find where our classes are." I started walking and she followed silently behind me. We managed to find all our classes before the first bell rang. We both had the same English class first hour, so we walked back to our class. The teacher seemed very nice on first impression. We thought we were going to have a good year with him until he gave us a 10-page research report on a book that I'd never heard of that was due the very next Monday. The bell finally rang, saving us from class. We stopped outside the door to double check what our next classes were.

"I have biology," I observed. Mariah frowned.

"I have math."

"Oh well. Meet me back here after class, okay?"

"Okay. See ya then." I gave her a hug as we went our separate ways. The entire second hour was very boring. The teacher only went on and on about how important biology was. Extremely boring. The bell finally rang after what seemed like a lifetime. I rushed out of class to meet up with Mariah.

"Was your class as boring as mine?" I wondered, hoping I wasn't the only one who was ready to shoot myself.

"Ugh. You have no idea. I never thought it would end!"

"Same here." The second bell, warning us that we had only two minutes to get to class, rang.

"You have P.E., right?" Mariah asked as she looked at her schedule.

"Yeah. We better get there." We were immediately given uniforms and thrown on the volleyball court. I loved volleyball, but I was no good at it. I'm not sure how I did it, but I managed to survive through P.E. We changed out of our uniforms as the bell rang and we both had lunch, which relieved us to unbelief. We almost ran to the cafeteria and jumped in the pizza line. We both grabbed a plate with pepperoni pizza, French fries, and a water bottle. We found an impossible empty spot at a table and sat down. We ate our pizza and fries in record time from being so hungry after P.E. and drank down both our water bottles. After both of our lunches were history, we went outside to look for Tailor and Skyler (mostly Skyler). We were allowed to use our phones during lunch, which was a huge advantage, so I texted Tailor to see where he was. We found them in very little time and hung out until the bell rang. We all exchanged hugs, the boys disappeared, and I went to Spanish while Mariah ran to choir. I made it to class just before the tardy bell rang. I noticed Skyler sitting with an empty seat next to him. I cheerfully sat down beside him.

"Hey, Skyler." He didn't seem to notice me until I said his name. He looked at me and showed me his amazing smile. His bright blue eyes always sparkled when he smiled and his longish brown hair seemed to flow. Of course, this guy has always been so dreamy…to me.

"Hi, Waverly. How's it goin'?"

I shrugged. "Average school day. Still trying to figure out where to go." He laughed at me and I smiled back at him. We didn't say anymore because the teacher had already started class. I was surprisingly very comfortable with Skyler near me. I liked the little chemistry that there was flowing magically between us. About halfway through class, I noticed that his left hand had started to grow red and it looked like the texture of his skin was changing. He seemed to notice it, too. He excused himself from class by asking to go to the restroom. He hid his hand in his pocket as I watched him walk out of the classroom. He came back at the very last minute of class, making the excuse that he had felt sick to his stomach but didn't want to go to the nurse. Typical high school boy, I thought to myself. He smiled as he returned to his seat to put his supplies in his backpack. I politely smiled back at him. I wanted to ask him what had gone wrong, but I didn't want to be nosey. The bell rang just as he finished zipping up his backpack. He flung it over his shoulders and walked with me to history. It appeared that he had the same history class as well. We sat by each other, bored to death by the teacher's lecture. I somehow managed to stay alive through the entire fifth period. When class was finally over, Skyler walked me to my geometry class. He gave me a hug then went to his class.

I walked into the classroom, smiling. Mariah showed up shortly after I had. She immediately took the seat to the right of me, obviously wondering why I was so smiley.

"It's about Skyler, isn't it?" she observed. I nodded.

"He hugged me for the first time just now." She rolled her eyes at me and smiled.

"You really are boy crazy, aren't you?" My only response was to nod. She shook her head at me. I had to laugh, although I didn't know why. Conveniently, class started as soon as our conversation had come to a close. The bell rang after a rater short amount of time, it seemed like. Mariah and I walked out together, finding Skyler standing by the door. I saw him so suddenly that it scared the living daylights out of me. I didn't expect him to be there that quickly…or at all. He looked at me and smiled his heart warming smile. He seemed to be able to read my face by answering my unspoken question.

"My class was right next door."

"Oh. Cool," I managed to say with great effort. He laughed at my attempted confidence. Mariah puled on my arm a little bit. Skyler knew what she was getting at and he led the way to the buses, since neither of us knew where they were. We found Tailor, or he found us, and we all got to our bus with no trouble. We sat in the same formation as that morning. Apparently we were very lucky to get the back row. Skyler and Mariah left the bus before us, not hanks to the fact that we were the last stop. I almost fell asleep since it was such a long time until our stop came up. We finally reached our stop and ran to the house. Again, he beat me, and again, no competition. I walked into the house and automatically made myself a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. I brought it up to my room, taking a couple bites along the way. When I opened the door to my room, my phone was still attached to its charger, ringing. I recognized that it was my text tone, so I didn't hurry to get it. I hung my bag up on the back of my desk chair and put my books on my desk.

I then unplugged my phone from its charger and looked at who had texted me. The name that showed was Skyler. I opened the text enthusiastically and read it carefully making sure I didn't miss a single word. "hey Waverly I was wonderin if u had any interest in comin over 2 my house today…." I immediately texted back "heck ya im coming!" I dug through my top left desk drawer and found the keys to my old black Jeep. I grabbed my wallet and put it in my back pocket as Skyler texted back. His response said "gr8 " I ran downstairs after perfecting my makeup, not bothering to shut my door. When I reached the bottom of the stairs, I saw my parents in the kitchen, the one thing I was hoping to avoid. Of course.

"Hey, where are you off to in such a hurry?" my mom said, making me stop dead.

"Uh…a friend's house." I took a couple steps forward.

"Which friend?" my dad stopped me cold this time. I had to think about the answer for a second. Should I saw I was going to Skyler's or lie and say I was going to Mariah's? They lived on opposite parts of town, so I couldn't get away with a lie if they watched me drive away. I decided to do both.

"Mariah and I are going to Skyler's house 'cause we have a project for school and we wanted to meet up and work on it." To my convenience, they believed me. I walked through the living room to the door that led to our attached garage. As the garage opened, I started my Jeep and prepared to back out. I pulled out of the garage and drove up to the main road, turning right. I drove quietly and anxiously the whole 20 minutes it took to reach Skyler's house. As I turned onto his street, I started to get nervous. I was almost sick to my stomach when I pulled up in his driveway. I took the key out of the ignition, put it in a free pocket and stepped out into the cool yet warm air. When I reached his front door, I felt like I was going to pass out. I pulled myself together and bravely knocked on the door. It took him all of five seconds to get from wherever he was-probably waiting specifically for me-to get to the door. The second I saw his face, I found myself unable to breathe. I took me a few seconds before I was able to keep myself from passing out. He laughed at me and smiled his perfect smile. He invited me in and led me to his basement. He told me that his parents were rarely home because they both worked and they never went down to the basement when they were home. I didn't know why, but I liked the sound of that. If his parents never really checked up on him, then that meant I got him to myself.

He led me through the dark to his room. He opened the door and flipped on a light switch just to the right of the door. A couple rows of black lights across his ceiling gave faint light to the room. His bed was pushed into the far right corner with a 38-inch flat screen TV just to the left of his bed mounted high on the wall. A short, black, six-drawer dresser sat just below the amazing TV. On the wall in front of us, in the left corner, was a magnificent stereo system with dozens of CDs and an iPod touch placed in is iHome, which connected to the stereo. It took me a second before I realized that he had his own game systems: an Xbox 360 with a Kinect, a Wii with two controllers, and a PS3. I also noticed he had a black Toshiba laptop sitting on his pillows. I looked on the left side of the stereo system and found a Mount Everest of DVDs. It was hard for me to take it tall in. I didn't even have half of what he did. Skyler noticed me staring at and admiring his things and laughed at me for a second.

"Well, this is it. This is my little "man cave". There's really not much to it, but it's pretty good," he said to me, looking around his room.

"You call this not much? This is more than what I could get in a whole lifetime!" I said. He couldn't help but laugh at me again.

"Are you hungry? We can go out for something if you want," Skyler offered me.

"What were you thinking of?" I asked him.

"I'm fine with anything that's not Mexican food." He smiled at me, yet again. I thought for a minute.

"Are you okay with going all the way to Fargo?" Fargo was the city just across the Red river, into North Dakota, from Moorhead, which was where we lived.

"Of course. Where in Fargo?"

"I was thinking the Olive Garden, then maybe a trip over to the Safari theater before we come back." I pulled my wallet out of my back pocket and waved it front of me, showing him that I had money.

"Sounds good to me, but there's only one minor problem." A worried look crossed my face, but he kept smiling.

"What's the problem?" He took my wallet and threw it on his bed, next to his laptop.

"I'm buying." I smiled at him and took the keys out of my pocket.

"And I'm driving," he hinted at me. He led me to his garage, where he kept his car. He had a beautiful black 2012 Mustang GT convertible. He opened the passenger door for me and let me in, then closed the door behind me and got in his side. Then we pulled out of the garage and headed for Fargo. To my surprise, he took as many back roads as he possibly could. It made me comfortable, being completely and totally alone with him. We found our way from the back roads to the restaurant very easily and, luckily, it wasn't packed like it typically was. We walked in with his arm over my shoulders, which made me feel a little short, but I liked it anyway.

"Table for two in a non-crowded room, please," Skyler asked the hostess. She nodded, grabbed two menus and led us outside on the patio where nobody was around and then led us to a corner table. Clearly she understood exactly what he wanted.

"Is this alright?" the hostess asked Skyler. He smiled his dazzling smile at her and nodded.

"Perfect."

She placed the menus on either side of the table in front of us as we sat down. "Your server will be with you in just a minute. Have a good evening." the hostess said then turned and walked away. I looked up at Skyler only to see that he was staring longingly into my eyes. I smiled.

"What?"

"Oh, nothing. Nothing." he said then opened up his menu. The waiter appeared shortly after.

"Hi, my name is Amber, and I'll be your server this evening. Can I start you off with something to drink?" she said as she pulled out her little notebook.

"Coke," I said. The server scribbled on her paper then turned to Skyler.

"Same for me." The server scribbled on her pad some more, nodded, and left. I waited for the patio door to close completely before I said anything.

"Why are you doing all this for me? You really don't have to," I said in the sweetest tone that I could. He looked like he was struggling for the right words.

"Because you're amazing and beautiful," he replied. I could feel the heat in my face and he laughed.

"I am not. That's a lie."

"I don't have any idea in the fricken universe how you could say that." Just then the server came back with our drinks on a tray. She placed them, along with two straws, in front of us.

"Are you two ready to order?"

"I think we are," Skyler said, immediately opening the menu and looking at me. We both just picked some random thing from the menu. I didn't care what I got. I just wanted to be with him. I figured he was thinking the same. The server left quickly, thank goodness. When she was gone, I turned back to Skyler. He was again gazing at me with those beautiful, deep blue eyes. I couldn't help but smile.

"What?" I repeated.

"You are beautiful, Waverly. I don't think I will ever find another girl nearly as beautiful as you for as long as I live."

I smiled even bigger. "Stop it. Those are all lies."

He shook his head at me. "That's impossible. Don't you dare say that. It's not true." I couldn't say anything anymore. I felt myself starting to blush and he laughed at me a bit. We were rather quiet for a while, not knowing what to say. We sipped at our Cokes, waiting for our food. Fortunately, I didn't find the silence very awkward, and he didn't seem to find it awkward either. We were both silent up unit the waitress came with our food. She placed our plates in front of us cheerfully.

"Can I get you two anything else?" she asked.

"No, I think we're good," Skyler answered her. I nodded in agreement. She nodded and left quickly. Skyler pulled out his iPhone and started dabbing away at it.

"What movie do you want to see?' he asked me.

"It doesn't matter to me. You pick."

He dabbed some more at his phone. "Okay. Our movie starts at 5. It's 4:15 now so we should eat quickly in order to get there on time." He smiled at me.

"What movie are we going to?" He smiled even wider and his eyes brightened.

"You'll see."

We pulled up at the Safari movie theater around 4:45. Not so much to my surprise, he took my hand in his and led me to the ticket booth. He dropped my hand to pull out his wallet as we approached a booth.

"Two tickets to Forever, please," he told the man. He placed his Student ID on the counter for a discount. The man looked at it, and then passed it back to Skyler.

"That'll be 10 dollars," the man said. Skyler placed a 10 dollar bill on the counter and got the tickets. "Enjoy your movie," the man said to us as we walked in the theater. Skyler held open the door for me as we walked in. We came to another stand with a woman this time. He gave her the tickets and she tore off the bottom.

"You'll be in theater 9 to your right," she said, giving the tickets back. Skyler took the tickets and put them in his wallet. We walked into theater 9 and went straight to the back, just before the previews started. The lights went down and people started shushing other people as the screen lit up. Skyler reached his arm around me and pulled me close to him as the movie started. I rested my head on his shoulder and stayed like that through the whole movie without a single complaint from either one of us. After the movie, I came out like many of the other girls, teary-eyed. He put his arms around me and walked me to his car. Outside, the sun had just set, leaving beautiful colors of sky behind. The moon had appeared, full and beautiful. Skyler opened my door, and I got, with him closing my door behind me. He got in his side, started the car, and we drove to his house in silence.

We pulled up at his house and found no new cars in the driveway, meaning neither of his parents was home. Skyler walked me to the door with his arms around my waist, still in silence. I used the bathroom in his basement to clean myself up since, unfortunately, I didn't possess waterproof makeup. He was waiting patiently for me outside the door and seemed thrilled when I came out. He reached around me and turned the bathroom light off, leaving us in pitch black darkness. I wasn't sure what he intended to do in the dark, but I trusted him somehow. He ran his hands from my shoulders down to my wrists then back to my neck. Before I knew it, I felt his lips on mine, kissing me softly. I couldn't help but kiss him back. It was in this one moment that I knew I truly loved him. I put my arms around his neck and locked my hands together, refusing to let go. He brought his hands to my waist then curled his arms around me, still kissing me. He refused to release me for another minute.

When he did, he leaned his forehead against mine and said in a whisper, "I love you."

I smiled and whispered in reply, "I love you, too." He pulled my body even closer to his and started kissing me again, a little harder this time. I tightened my grip around his neck, not wanting this moment to end. He suddenly tightened his arms around my waist. Then, the next thing I knew, my feet were no longer touching the ground. Once I was conscious of this, I slowly wrapped my legs around his waist. He finally put me down, not that I wanted to be, and pulled his face back from mine. At that moment, my phone rang from in my pocket. I pulled it out and checked the caller ID. It was my mom. I slid my phone open and touched Answer.

"Hi, mom." I said, a little awkwardly.

"Where are you? You should've been home by now!" my mother sounded frantic on the other end. I sighed.

"Sorry, we lost track of time," I lied, "I'll be home in about 25 minutes."

"You better! I'm holding you to it," she said, and then the line went dead. I slid my phone shut and put it back in my pocket.

"Sorry. My mom's going crazy about me not being home. I should probably go if I don't want to get the wrath of my parents," I said, ashamed.

"Hey. It's okay. There's always tomorrow, and I don't want to risk you getting in trouble," Skyler said sweetly.

"I don't want to go, though. I want to stay here."

"I wish you could. Wait; are you busy Friday night into Saturday morning?"

"No. Why?"

"You could stay the night here and tell your parents that you want to stay the night at Mariah's. Just lie."

"I'll have to see if I can do that and survive, but I'll try."

"Good. Now let's get you going before you really are in trouble." He took my hand and led me to the black staircase and up the stairs into dim light. He stopped us by the front door and turned to face me. He gave me a small kiss then let me go. I was in disbelief when I walked out to my car. I got in and started the engine, and then backed out of his driveway and headed for home, speeding a little bit to stay in my 25-minute curfew. I arrived home just in time before I was "late" around 8:30. I went in through the back door and went straight up to my bedroom since I wasn't going to suffer a long lecture from my parents and because I was exhausted. Since I didn't have any homework, I decided to go straight to bed. I quickly changed into my pajamas and crawled into bed, hoping to have dreams about Skyler. To my benefit, I fell asleep easily and quickly.


End file.
